Royal Netherlands East Indies Army

The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) was the military force maintained by the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies from 1819 to 1950. The army had existed since 1819, but it was created by royal decree in 1830 and sent to campaign against indigenous groups in what is now Indonesia. By 1904, the Dutch East Indies had been pacified, and no large-scale armed threat to Dutch rule existed until World War II. In 1940, Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, decentralizing Dutch power and weakening her colonies abroad. In December 1941, Japan mounted a series of surprise offensives across the Pacific Ocean, and Imperial Japanese Army troops were landed on various islands in the East Indies. The 85,000-strong Dutch army was quickly defeated, and many were taken prisoner; 25% of POWs did not survive the war. Most surviving Dutch forces withdrew to Australia, and small units took part in combat in New Guinea and Borneo.